Cremation Alternative: Try 'Liquefaction'

Its name sounds almost like a new kitchen gizmo, but the Resomator is ... not that. The machine is being pitched as a greener alternative to cremation, and the first one in the US will be in use soon at a funeral home in St. Petersburg, Florida, reports the BBC. The Resomator uses a solution of alkaline water and potassium hydroxide that gets heated and pressurized to liquify a corpse in about three hours.

Probably the strangest part to the uninitiated: The resulting liquid gets poured down a regular drain into the sewage system, though that solution is said to be sterile and to contain no DNA. Bone fragments do remain, but they get pulverized the same way they would in the cremation process. Florida is one of seven states that have approved the machine, and its Scottish maker hopes to be shipping more elsewhere to the US, as well as Canada and Europe. The BBC link has an explainer video. (More cremation stories.)